Obama Administration Will Have To Put an End to Drone Strikes Now

Published in Nawa-i-Waqt (Pakistan) on 24 April 2014
by Editorial [link to original]Translated from Urdu by Fauzia Iqbal. Edited by Tess Chadwick.Posted on April 30, 2014.

A U.S. court has ordered the Department of Justice to make public the document presenting legal justification for the extrajudicial killing of people, including U.S. citizens, involved in terrorism. The court has also required the Obama administration to make public the documents that provide legal justification for drone attacks.

The U.S. views drone attacks as an easy means for taking terrorists to their logical end, but in fact, most of the individuals killed in these attacks are innocent. There are numerous families in the tribal areas that had absolutely no connection with terrorism, but were killed in U.S. drone attacks. It is this American barbarism that has created intense hatred against America in the Pakistani public.

The Pakistan government has made numerous protests against drone attacks to the United States. Member countries of the United Nations have also urged the United States, by means of a resolution, to respect international laws and observe the U.N. Charter and human rights laws. A resolution of the European Parliament has also held the deaths of human beings through drone attacks to be extrajudicial killings. Despite this, America has not ceased its drone attacks.

Now, a U.S. court has required the Obama administration to make public the documents providing legal justification for drone attacks. It is hoped that the U.S. court will help provide justice to oppressed people by ending the culture of extrajudicial killings the Obama administration has adopted.